Morocco's Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) posted a small rise in first-half net profit, held back by rising bad debts and higher provisions. BCP, which is rated BBB-/A-3 by credit rating agency Standard & Poor with a negative outlook, yesterday said bad debts rose to 12.48 billion dirhams from 10.02bn at the end of 2012 due to a slowdown in the non-agricultural sector. It also increased risk provisions by 9.9 per cent to 8.46bn dirhams from 7.7bn at the end of 2012. First-half net profit rose 5.7pc to 1.7bn dirhams ($200 million). Deposits climbed 1.5pc to 204.9bn dirhams, giving the bank a market share of 27.6pc. It collected 52.5pc of the remittances from Moroccans living abroad, representing 75.2bn dirhams.